Existential Psychology and Culture

Existential Psychotherapy & Culture Louis Hoffman, PhD Saybrook University

Overview

ò  Opening Invitation & Ground Rules

ò  What is Culture?

ò  Personal Context

ò  Competency Approach

ò  Language Issues

ò  Implications of Culture for the International Context

ò  Myths and Culture

ò  Individualism/Collectivism

ò  Freedom

ò  Authenticity

Opening Invitation & Ground Rules

ò  Intent & Invitation:

ò  To be an interactive dialogue

ò  Embrace a searching approach

ò  Seek understanding of different approaches, not asserting who is right

ò  Offer approaches and possibilities; not answers


ò  Ground Rules

ò  As presenter, I get to set some ground rules

ò  This workshop is not a forum for debate, but rather a forum for conversation & dialogue

ò  Not seeking who is right, but understanding different approaches and understandings

ò  This is not a place for long monologues

ò  Questions should be seeking understanding


ò  The Invitation and Ground Rules, as will be discussed, are particularly important for the context of culture and international psychology.

What is Culture?

ò  Discussion:

ò  When you think of culture, what comes to mind?

What is Culture?

ò  The Evolution of “Culture” (Tanner, 1997)

ò  Originated in Latin – having to do with care of crops and livestock

ò  Late 1700s/Early 1800s – Evolved to referring to a “cultured” person

ò  Having developed an appreciation for intellectual and artistic expressions

ò  “High Culture” ashaving been educated and developed refined ways of behaving and speaking

What is Culture?

ò  Contemporary Understanding of Culture (Tanner, 1997)

ò  The idea of “High Culture” still in use, but not what we are focusing on here

ò  High culture tends to impose upon individuals or groups of people

ò  It socializes or educates to a particularly perspective

What is Culture?

ò  Contemporary Understanding of Culture (Tanner, 1997)

ò  The contemporary usage of “culture” tends to understand it as emergent from different groups, that could be identified as cultural groups.

ò  Culture as universal and layered ò  Individuals often associate with various cultures; some broad,

some narrow

ò  Humans are products of culture, but also make culture; there is a bidirectional process

ò  People relate to their culture differently, but cannot escape being influenced and impacted by culture

ò  Our cultures reflect our diversities

What is Culture?

ò  We cannot understand individuals solely by understanding their culture.

ò  We cannot understand individuals without understanding their culture.

What is Culture?

ò  Multiculturalism

ò  Interaction of many cultures

ò  Layers of culture

ò  Cultural Diversity

ò  In the United States, often used interchangeably with multiculturalism

ò  Important to recognize that multiculturalism and cultural diversity exist within different cultures

ò  Experienced different in different cultures

Personal Context

ò  I am a White male of privileged background who has lived his entire life in the United States

ò  I grew up in a rural part of the United States that lacked much cultural diversity

ò  Became interested in culture late in my graduate education

ò  Married a Bahamian woman and have 3 children who will be considered African American

ò  For approximately 10-years, have traveled to China to engage in dialogues and teach about existential psychology as well as the psychology of religion.

ò  Also have taught/presented in the Bahamas, Mexico, and Singapore

ò  Developed interest in international psychology and indigenous psychology

ò  Became passionate about social justice issues relevant to multiculturalism and diversity in the United States, and my family is deeply impacted by these

ò  I have strongly advocated for existential psychology in the United States to develop a deeper engagement with multiculturalism and diversity.

Personal Context

ò  Get in groups of 2-3

ò  Briefly discuss your own personal context for culture

Reflection upon Personal Context

ò  Consider:

ò  What did you highlight as important?

ò  Why?

ò  How is this a reflection of your culture?

ò  How is this a reflection of your history?

ò  How is this a reflection of you as an individual?

Competency

ò  Various approaches to this:

ò  Multicultural Competence – influential in the US ò  Attitude, Knowledge, & Skills

ò  Transcultural Competence (Glover & Friedman, 2015) ò  “involves being able to adapt to various sociocultural settings

anywhere in the world, with or without prior knowledge of the cultural orientations of those people and societies they are encountering.” p. 8 ò  Recognition

ò  Respect

ò  Reconciliation

ò  realization

ò  De-emphasizes knowledge from the multicultural approach

Competency

ò  Knowledge:

ò  Includes self-knowledge & awareness of biases as well as knowledge of other cultures

ò  Helps one to see

ò  Helps one to recognize differences

ò  Awareness of ways individuals and groups can be different

Competency

ò  Attitude

ò  Respect

ò  Humility

ò  Cultural relativity

ò  Not the same as relativism

Competency

ò  Skills

ò  Could include Glover and Friedman’s (2015) reconciliation (coming to an agreement) and realization (putting into behavior)

ò  Skills more difficult to implement without knowledge & attitude

Competency

ò  Examples:

ò  Invitation to critique & adapt

ò  The double edge imposition

ò  Eye Contact (China)

ò  Openness to Cultural Rituals

ò  Korean University President & the Liberal Arts

ò  Time

Language Issues

ò  A significant barrier in international contexts is language and translations issues.

ò  Lack of translators that really understand terminology

ò  Many terms do not have equivalents

ò  Terms often get simplified or distorted

Implications of Culture for an International Context

ò  Existential psychology originated in the West, but it does not belong to the West (Hoffman, 2010)

Implications of Culture for an International Context

ò  An Existential Approach to International Psychology (Yang & Hoffman, 2014)

ò  1) Cultural Critique

ò  2) Cultural Adaptation

ò  3) Engagement and Integration with Indigenous Approaches

Myth and Culture

ò  The Cry for Myth (May, 1981)

ò  Myth as meaning systems

ò  Myth, not as false, but something that cannot be proven true

ò  Compare cultural relativity

ò  Existential Psychology East-West (Hoffman et al., 2009)

ò  Existential givens as universals that require individually and culturally specific answers (Hoffman, 2009)

Cultural Critique & Adaptation

ò  No therapy approach should be applied in the same way in different cultures

ò  No therapy approach should be applied before engaging in cultural critique

ò  All approaches to therapy need some adaptation to be applied in different cultures

Cultural Critique & Adaptation

ò  We often do not recognize limitation cultural difference

ò  Some we never recognize

ò  Some we only become aware of when immersed in the culture

ò  Error of Existential Psychology

ò  ‘Because we focus on the individual subjectivity and experience of the person, we do not need to discuss multiculturalism and cultural differences’

ò  Learning to see differences

Indigenous Approaches

ò  What is Indigenous Psychology? (from Task Force on Indigenous Psychology website)

ò  1) A reaction against the colonization/hegemony of Western psychology

ò  2) The need for non-Western cultures to solve their local problems through indigenous practices and applications.

ò  3) The need for a non-Western culture to recognize itself in the constructs and practices of psychology.

ò  4) The need to use indigenous philosophies and concepts to generate theories of global discourse.


ò  Zhi Mian Therapy – Xuefu Wang

ò  Lu Xun

ò  Chinese literary figure and cultural critic

ò  Wrote essays and short stories

ò  Zhi Mian translates to “Face Directly”

ò  To Face Oneself Directly (Self-honesty, self-awareness)

ò  Lu Xun emphasizes “bloody truths”

ò  To Face to World Directly (Honestly looking at the human condition

ò  To Face others Directly (Authenticity)


ò  Benjamin Tong, Mark Yang, and Erik Craig – Taoism

Individualism/Collectivism

ò  The Controversy

ò  Limitations of Categorical Understanding

ò  Limitations of Continuum Understanding

ò  Important that we do not reify these constructs

ò  There are many individualisms and many collectivisms


ò  Various lines of individualism/collectivism

ò  Relational

ò  Identity

ò  Family versus work

ò  Group Needs vs. Individual Needs

ò  Money

ò  Decision Making

ò  Process

ò  Values

ò  Etc.


ò  Existential psychology

ò  Falsely accused of being too individualistic

ò  Accurately accused of being too individualistic

ò  There are many existential psychologies, too

ò  All tend to have some individualistic biases


ò  Paradoxical Self (Schneider, 1990; Hoffman et al. 2014)

ò  A-Part-Of and Apart-From (Bugental, 1999)

ò  Social Harmony & the Rebel

Freedom

ò  Distinguishing political and existential freedom

ò  Yet, political and existential freedom are inevitably related

ò  Frankl (1984)

ò  Freedom to choice our attitude

ò  Yet even this is culturally influenced

ò  Junkanoo (Cleare-Hoffman, 2009)

Authenticity

ò  Question from China:

ò  “How do you be authentic in a social that encourages false humility and hierarchy?”

ò  Authenticity may be different in different cultures

ò  Especially consider the individualism – collectivism dimensions

References ò  Bugental, J. F. T. (1999). Psychotherapy isn’t what you think: Bringing psychotherapy engagement into the living moment. Phoenix,

AZ: Zeig, Tucker, and Theisen.

ò  Cleare-Hoffman, H. P. (2009). Junkanoo: A Bahamian cultural myth. In L. Hoffman, M. Yang, F. J. Kaklauskas, & A. Chan (Eds.), Existential psychology East-West (pp. 363-372). Colorado Springs, CO: University of the Rockies Press.

ò  Frankl, V. (1984). Man’s search for meaning (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Touchstone. ò  Glover, J., & Friedman, H. L. (2015). Transcultural competence: Navigating cultural differences in the global community.

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association . ò  Hoffman, L. (2009). Gordo’s ghost: An introduction to existential perspectives on myths. In L. Hoffman, M. Yang, F. J.

Kaklauskas, & A. Chan (Eds.), Existential psychology East-West (pp. 259-274). Colorado Springs, CO: University of the Rockies Press.

ò  Hoffman, L. (2010, April). Existential psychology in an East-West dialogue. Opening address at the first international conference on existential psychology. Nanjing, China.

ò  Hoffman, L., & Granger, N., Jr., (2015). Stay awhile: Poetic narratives on multiculturalism and diversity. Colorado Springs, CO: University of the Rockies Press.

ò  Hoffman, L., Stewart, S., Warren, D., & Meek, L. (2014). Toward a sustainable myth of self: An existential response to the postmodern condition. In K. J. Schneider, J. F. Pierson & J. F. T. Bugental (Eds.), The handbook of humanistic psychology: Theory, research, and practice (2nd edition; pp. 105-133). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

ò  May, R. (1981). The cry for myth. New York, NY: Delta.

ò  Schneider, K. J. (1990). The paradoxical self: Toward an understanding of our contradictory nature. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books.

ò  Tanner, K. (1997). Theories of culture: A new agenda for theology. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. ò  Task Force on Indigenous Psychology (Society of Humanistic Psychology). (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.indigenouspsych.org/ ò  Yang, M., & Hoffman, L. (2014, August). Training and practice in an international context. In C. N. Shealy (Chair),

International humanistic psychology: Implications and applications for research and practice. Symposium presented at the 122nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

Conclusion

ò  Slides will be available at:

ò  https://saybrook.academia.edu/LouisHoffman

ò  and

ò  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Louis_Hoffman

Existential Psychology and Culture

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